When Wine & Food Pairing Fails.

Sometimes I question whether I am a wine & food snob. Seriously when someone suggests that we go to dinner at a chain restaurant (e.g. Olive Garden, Claim Jumper) I am not interested. I do not want to waste my money at a place that microwaves pre-prepared food and does the singing "clap-clap" if it's your birthday. My selections will always be that unique little spot that only exists in a specific city, a gourmet restaurant from an award winning chef, or my secret crush... a brewpub.

In a recent visit to Oregon I noticed that one of the wineries that I have a membership with, Cana's Feast Winery in Carlton, was having a harvest dinner. I have been a fan of their New World Style Italian wines for a couple years and I was intrigued by the thought of a wine and food pairing dinner. I reviewed the menu and thought it wasn't the most appealing lineup: mixed greens, pasta, and roasted pig but was game to take a gamble and spend the $50/person. After all Carlton, Oregon is known for quality when it comes to pig raising.

My first encounter was with Ms. S (I will omit full names) a nice woman from the bay area who checked me in and later admitted to me that she is Raider fan. Nice. I followed this up by wandering to the tasting room and when the guy behind the counter asked me if I needed help I told him that I was here for the event and I wanted to get a glass of wine as it was only 4:40 and the dinner was scheduled to being at 5pm. His response was the they were doing tastings and that he would ring me up in a minute. Ring me up? Tastings? We are not in Napa that is for sure. I could see the guy was swamped so I left him and went outside to wait around for 5pm.

I was glad to see when I went outside that Ms. J was setting up glasses and bottles to prepare for the event. She had opened and checked most the bottles by about 4:55 and I thought I would walk over and see if it wasn't too early to start in on the Rosato a slightly sweet blush wine . It was a beautiful day we had a nice table to sit at and I was ready to enjoy the Wine Life. I slowly approached Ms. J and she quickly rebuked me saying that they were not ready yet. Yikes. 2 rejections in less than 30 minutes, am I single again?

Needless to say this kind of bugged me and I sat back down and spent the next 20 minutes bitching about how wine events should be. 20 minutes. You got that right I was sitting there until well after the official start time of the event and still no wine. I was getting a bit frustrated and if Ms. J had good hearing she probably heard it. It was about 5:25 when Ms. J started walking around and handing out glasses of 1 oz pours of wine. Whoa, easy there you know in about 3 hours I will have to drive so don't give me too much. Meh.

It was also at about this time that the servers started walking around handing out appetizers. For the most part these were uninspired but I did enjoy the eggplant. It didn't pair well with the Rosato and this was a precursor to the night ahead. Marinara sauce wrapped in a thinly sliced piece of eggplant that if it had a kick of spice or if there was was a touch of salt to bring out the sweetness of the tomato I think the pairing would have been good but it tasted more like something that if it were accompanied by some fried calamari would have been a delight. Alone as it was served I would have paired the eggplant with a Sangiovese.

I went up to Ms. J and requested some more wine and again she gave me tiny samples to take back to my table. At one point she walked around to the various attendees and poured more Rosato but strange as it may seem she skipped our table altogether. I also noted that she was quite generous with some people and not so much with others. Did I say something wrong? For the most part Ms. J just stood at the wine table waiting for something to happen and at one point one of the other Cana's Feast staff asked her why she wasn't pouring wine. At another point a disgruntled guest brought another staffer to the wine table and apologetically got her a full glass of Rosato. Ms. J sacrificed everything to protect that precious juice.

It was nearly 6pm when we were greeted by winemaker Patrick Taylor. This was followed by a direction to find a seat in the outdoor dining area and the anticipation of things to come. Ms. J and Patrick walked around and poured Counoise which was akin to Pinot Noir but lighter with more emphasis on earth and spice than on fruit. It was a nice wine on it's own but when paired with mixed greens, eggplant and sweet roasted peppers simply irritated. They also poured the 2008 Barbera which was completely out of place as well.

The next course was a classic screw up in wine and food pairing and proof that you cannot pair Pinot Noir with everything. A pasta dish in a white cream sauce of grana padano cheese, corn, and chantrelle mushrooms paired with two Pinot Noir wines of various vintages (one that appeared to have turned). All they had to do to fix this baby was throw in sweet BBQ pork bits or bacon pieces in that pasta dish and you would have had a winner. Oh, and teach Ms. J how to detect wine flaws.

The main course. YES! The young roasting pig was next and boy was I ready. I had my sample of Nebbiolo & Sangiovese Grosso ready and the plate was on its way down the table and OPPS! No meat left. Only skin. I had to ask the guy who came around to collect the serving plates to bring us some meat because folks we had none. $50/person not including tip was a bargain wasn't it? In a few minutes he came back with the scraps left over and my family and I were able to taste this wonderful disaster.

Excuse me Chef Lisa, do you know what Emeril Lagasse does when he goes "BAM"? He adds seasoning. He knows that to properly prepare meat that you need to marinate it and let it sit for a while and soak up that bath. Would it have been such a waste of time to give that poor pig that gave his life for this meal a nice bath in some seasoning and perhaps I don't know maybe some WINE?

Dessert was also uninspired (roasted pears) but came with a small sample of a wine that Patrick is experimenting with call Chinato. This wine reminded me of a delicate cough syrup and was one of the few bright spots to the evening because it had some character and stood out next to chef Lisa's mundane repast.

Because Ms. J was so rude throughout the evening I was in no mood to purchase wine. When she came around at the end of the meal to ask if I wanted to purchase wine to take with me I told her no. I had anticipated that this event would be a wonderful treat and it was a major failure.

Maybe I am a wine and food snob but the people at this event that raved and applauded should stick with Olive Garden. I think the staff needs a good manager and I didn't see anyone on site doing this. To give praise to this event not only misleads the staff of Cana's Feast, it's Chef, and the Winemaker (winepairer) it ultimately hurts them and their business.